Nasser al-Ansi

Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi (October 1975-7 May 2015) was a propagandist for al-Qaeda and a senior leader of Yemeni Ansar al-Sharia. In videos, al-Ansi claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of United States journalist Luke Somers and the Charlie Hebdo massacre. He was killed during the Yemeni Civil War in al-Mukalla by a drone airstrike.

Biography
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi was born in October 1975 in Ta'izz, Yemen. While at the Iman University in 1993, he was radicalized by Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda sympathizer Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani, and in 1995 he joined the Bosnian Mujahideen during the Bosnian War. He fought against the Republika Srpska, and stayed in Bosnia and Herzegovina until 1996, when he returned to Yemen. That year, he attempted to travel to Kashmir to fight alongside the Islamist insurgents against India, but Pakistan refused to let him in. He instead headed to Afghanistan, meeting al-Qaeda leaders Abu Hafs al-Masri and Saif al-Adel. He later tried to reach Tajikistan to fight in the Tajik Civil War, but the heavy snow prevented him.

In 1997, al-Ansi returned to Yemen, but he returned to Afghanistan in 1998. He joined al-Qaeda's forces on the battlefield and trained Qasim al-Raymi and others on the battlefield. The two of them were trained more at the al-Farouq camp. In 2001, he qualified the Moro resistance fighters in sharia and militarily, and he later planned to return to Afghanistan after the United States' invasion of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. In early 2002 he was captured in Yemen and released after six months in prison, and he received a certificate in Sharia jurisprudence from Iman University. He preached among the youth and conducted special training, and later became a senior commander of Yemeni Ansar al-Sharia. He claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of journalist Luke Somers in 2014 and the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre, which killed 12 people. However, he criticized the Islamic State's bombing of mosques, which was discouraged by the Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Soon after the fall of al-Mukalla on 17 April, al-Ansi moved to the city. On 7 May 2015, an American drone airstrike killed Nasser al-Ansi and some of his family in al-Mukalla, taking out a major leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.